In addition to the Resource Flow and Mass Balance data, the project will also produce an Ecological Footprint of the industry and benchmarks for use by contributors.

The ecological footprint of the UK poultry industry provides an indicator of the natural resource comsumption of the sector in the same way as established indicators may represent various aspects of the financial sector.

The footprint accounts for use of renewable resources only, and the consequential demands placed on the environment. Non-renewable resources are only accounted for by their impact on, or use of renewable productive biological capacity.

The footprint of the poultry industry is defined as the area of land and sea that would be required to maintain current levels of consumption, using existing technology.

Since many of the environmental impacts of production in the UK are outside the country, footprinting effectively re-allocates environmental pressures, first on the industry and subsequently down the supply chain to the consumer.

The footprint is measured in global hectares (gha), a standardised unit equivalent to a world average productive hectare. Such standardisation permits global comparisons, between nations, regions, industries and companies.